[Air-l] Research consultancy startup

[Zunt at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/13/2001 9:32:10 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
carey at newnorth.net writes:

>  I have started a part-time home-based research business.  Would you have 
any
>  suggestions as to future projects I could pursue?
>  
>  Thank you for any assistance-
>  
>  Carey

This is a tough question to address absent a good understanding of your 
interests, talents, and motivation.  I'm surely not trying to be cute here, 
but chances are that if you reflect on those topics for a while, you might 
get closer to a satisfactory answer on your own.  If you've done that and 
find yourself in a rut, it might be very worthwhile--in terms of focus--for 
you to work up a formal business plan using a software package or trusted 
advisors/consultants, and to network with others who operate independent 
research/evaluation enterprises.  The same folks who compete with you on some 
RFPs might, in other cases, have need of your services on projects they can't 
handle alone.

Try to find a long-term mentor (as distinguished from the consultants 
mentioned above) who has been successful doing what you want to do--not 
necessarily an easy task, but often possible.  Seniors in a field are often 
quite flattered to be approached and can be deep wells of useful information 
gained through their years of experience.  Along those lines, your local 
university might provide a link to a group of retired business executives who 
serve as advisors.

Your ISP provides several megs of space for you to develop a web site; you 
might take advantage of that to attract folks who have a need you can 
fulfill.  

The American Evaluation Association (eval.org) has a topical interest group 
for independent contractors.  It also has a very active e-mail list called 
EVALTALK; the archives might be quite useful to you.

Hope this helps as a start...I expect others here can fill in some gaps.

Cheers,

Bob Briggs
Westport, MA